SINGAPORE, June 30: Chinese world number one Lin Dan avenged his shock Athens Olympic loss to Singapore’s Ronald Susilo with a straight sets win in the third-round of the US$170,000r Singapore Open on Thursday.

Lin eased past Susilo, who has struggled for fitness since taking six months off after the Olympics, 15-6, 15-7 to cruise into the quarterfinals.

Thursday’s other third-round matches featured only two surprises, with Malaysia’s seeded pair of Mohammad Hafiz bin Hashim and Lee Chong Wei bowing out.

Ng Wei of Hong Kong ousted Mohammad, the sixth seed, 15-12, 8-15, 15-12 to earn a quarterfinal spot against Lin, and fourth-seeded Lee lost 13-15, 15-6, 4-15 to Korea’s Lee Hyung-Il.

There were no such problems for the Danes, with second seed Kenneth Jonassen fighting past Chen Yu of China 15-5, 17-14 and third seed Peter Gade crushing Chetan Anand of India 15-4, 15-3.

Gade will play reigning Olympic champion and eighth seed Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia, who made a slow start but still was too good for Sairul Amar Ayob of Malaysia, winning 17-14, 15-4.

Jonassen has a tougher quarterfinal opponent in Chen Hong, the current All England champion from China. Chen ousted Agus Hariyanto of Hong Kong 15-9, 15-11 in just over an hour.

In the women’s draw, China’s world number one Xie Xingfang recovered from a disastrous start to quell the challenge of Japanese qualifier Yu Hirayama 6-11, 11-2, 11-2 and earn a quarterfinal berth.

Results:

Men’s singles (third round):

Lin Dan bt Ronald Susilo 15-6, 15-7; Ng Wei bt Mohammad Hafiz bin Hashim 15-12, 8-15, 15-12; Peter Gade bt Chetan Anand 15-4, 15-3; Taufik Hidayat bt Sairul Amar Ayob 17-14, 15-4; Bao Chunlai bt Kuan Beng Hong 15-9, 15-12; Lee Hyun Il bt Lee Chong Wei 15-13, 6-15, 15-4; Chen Hong bt Hariyanto 15-9, 15-11; Kenneth Jonassen bt Chen Yu 15-4, 17-14

Women’s singles (second round):

Xie Xingfang bt Yu Hirayama 6-11, 11-2, 11-2; Zhou Mi bt Li Li 11-1, 11-13, 11-4; Jiang Yan Jiao bt Kanako Yonekura 11-4, 13-10; Petya Nedeltcheva bt Hwang Hye-Youn 11-6, 11-3; Mia Audina Tiptawan bt Monthila Meemek 11-7, 11-2; Pi Hongyan bt Aparna Popat 11-3, 11-8; Wang Chen bt Kaori Mori 11-2, 11-4; Zhang Ning) bt Xing Aiying 11-3, 2-11, 11-2.—AFP